Star Trek The Original Series S01E06, Mudd’s Women
Dir. Harvey Hart, Wri. Stephen Kandel
Summary: Problematic 60s sexual politics issues condensed into a single episode. The crew runs afoul of a space pimp and huxster who gives them quite a lot of trouble.
The Good: The cast’s super creepy horndog faces when they first meet the eponymous characters are absolutely hilarious–overplayed schlock Trek at its best. Spock’s bemusement with the whole damn thing works both on a comic level and as a good early character moment for him. Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) is certainly an interesting and memorable character (despite some problems we’re going to discuss in greater detail further in). The life of lithium crystal miners is interestingly observed in an incidental detail way.
The Bad: So so so much problematic content, from the camera to the dialogue to the trite messaging. Having circular cards makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The plot is much ado about nothing in the end. They really still don’t have the characters nailed down yet–everyone is really inconsistent. The ending is troubling on a couple of levels.
The Review: It is incredibly difficult to have a contemporary discussion about the weirdo sexual messaging of this episode. It’s very clear that the episode means well, but even the parts of it that are supposed to be positive are so strange to a modern viewer. There are drugs that make you sexy (maybe), but true beauty comes from within. You shouldn’t want a woman who is superficially beautiful, but instead one who will cook and clean for you because that’s what really matters. I just… I’m not sure if discussion of this episode might be lost to time.
Anyway, the story of this episode is pretty straightforward. The Enterprise intercepts a vessel and when they beam aboard its captain and cargo, they find it to be a very strange man transporting mail-order brides to remote mining outposts. Immediately the beauty of the women causes trouble among the crew of the Enterprise, and it’s clear that the charlatan transporting the young ladies has more going on than at first is evident. Kirk tries to get to the bottom of things, tensions escalate, and in the end everything ends up OK and no one really learns a lesson. From the outset, there’s so much to complain about. The crew is incredibly unprofessional, which stretches credibility. They attempt to explain it through a plot device that reveals the women to be chemically enhanced, but then they walk that back later in the episode. So what, then, is the explanation for the seasoned professionals of the Enterprise losing their collective poise when some pretty ladies show up? The whole thing makes very little sense.
The messaging is also really confusing. At first, it tries to push the idea that beauty isn’t what matters, which is a welcome theme for the 1960s. Unfortunately, it couples that with the theme that what *does* matter is traditional womanly virtues like cooking and cleaning. Then the issue becomes further convoluted when it is revealed that confidence is the real source of beauty and any woman can be beautiful with the right mindset, which seems to run counter to the previous message that beauty isn’t important. The whole thing is a thematic mess. It’s clear that the writer wanted to say something about human superficiality and beauty, but none of it really comes across clearly. There are too many messages (many of them contradictory) fighting for supremacy here, so that the episode has no clear voice.
On the other hand, the episode does have some undeniable positives. The lives of the lithium (not dilithium yet!) crystal miners is surprisingly well observed. It actually reminds me of the pilot episode in its level of detail and world-building. There’s just lots of fun sci-fi detail that fleshes out the Federation and its environs in interesting ways. In addition, Mudd is a great character (the character is not a good person, to be clear), and it’s obvious why they brought him back. Carmel brings a huge amount of charisma and energy to the role, and the scenes where he’s bilking the rubes are still really fun. He’s the kind of character you love to hate (and sometimes kind of even root for over the stodgy and formal Enterprise crew), but it’s more difficult to enjoy the hijinks than it used to be, for me at least. The fact that he’s basically selling slaves definitely grates for a modern viewer, and makes the fun he’s clearly having seem a lot less, well, fun. And that’s the story of this episode, really. You can see why it was a fan-favorite, but it’s hard to translate that into modern appreciation.
The Score: 